Digital video can be recorded in and streamed from digital video recording devices (i.e., Digital Video recorders, or DVRs), which are typically provided in the form of a set-top box that is generally being used as a companion device with a large video display such as a flat panel television set commonly mounted to a wall or sitting on a table, DVRs are typically provided to cable and satellite television company customers so that the customers can access and record scheduled programming. Video can also be streamed from remote servers over wired and wireless data network connections via modules installed in flat panel television sets or as companion devices such as DVD players and small boxes such as AppleTV and Roku running applications provided by pre-recorded video service providers such as Apple, Netflix, and Vudu.
Systems are now being provided with applications that enable mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers to stream video content to a flat panel television set via a data rendering module (e.g., AppleTV, Roku). Apple Corporation refers to its application as AirPay™, AirPlay™ enables a user to render video or other data content displayed on an iPhone on a secondary flat panel display screen connected to the AppleTV™ set-top box, U.S. Pat. No. 7,630,721 entitled “Systems, methods and apparatuses for brokering data between wireless devices and data rendering devices” issued to Ortiz also describes this capability.
Television sets today can be connected to data networks (e.g., the Internet) and are being marketed as “Smart TVs” because of their data network accessing capabilities, as well as the smartphone-like user interfaces they provide. Smart televisions and smartphones have only recently been able to interact with what is being referred to as “second screen” applications; however, applications that are currently available are limited to the wireless rendering of data that is either provided from a smartphone onto the screen of a flat panel display utilizing small gateway and video streaming devices such as those provided by Apple (e.g., Apple TV's Airplay) and Roku, or where data associated with programming displayed on the flat panel display is accessed by the second screen (e.g., smartphone) from a remote server (i.e., website) only after identifying a program being watched on a larger flat panel display to the server by name or access code.
Media sharing to flat panels directly from handhelds to flat panels has also been enabled using other wireless means or standards such as DLNA via a router, and directly with flat panel devices using WIFI direct, which has recently been accomplished with applications such as Multiscreen Play (by Hisense), AllJoyn and Snapdragon (by Qualcomm), Content Share (by Haier), Miracast (by Panasonic), SmartShare (by LG), and others. Yet all of these applications only teach sharing of data in one direction—from handheld devices (second screen) to larger flat panel devices (primary screen).
To date, flat panel displays (Smart TVs) are not known to be able to provide data directly to smartphones following a request to the flat panel initiated by the smartphone. All data delivery today appears limited to what is provided from a handheld device (smartphone, tablet, laptop) to a large data network-enabled flat panel display (Smart TV), typically by utilizing the screen/data sharing technologies describe above and as described in the '721 patent issued to Ortiz. All current data exchange solutions are also limited to interaction between two devices, a smartphone and a flat panel display/smart TV that are already connected to each other and are wirelessly engaged to provide commands and data from the handheld device to the flat panel display or a smartphone and a remote server based on information obtained about a program being displayed on a flat panel display. There is currently no intermediary device or application that can identify information that is available for smartphone retrieval from memory based directly on what is being displayed on flat panel displays.
An interesting data access problem presents itself, for example, in a scenario where there are several screens displaying multimedia data to spectators located in a public venue (e.g., a sports bar, sports stadium, casino sports book), or even in a private den or office where multiple participants (spectators) are viewing a program. No solutions are currently available for spectators utilizing wireless handheld devices to access/select data associated with (or being rendered on) a screen, whether the screen is located in a private home or if chosen from several screens co-located at the venue where various multimedia content is being simultaneously displayed. The present inventors believe that spectators/observers at home or at a public venue would like the ability to access specific content being displayed on and/or otherwise interact with what is being displayed on any primary screen. This is especially true with respect to sports programming where fans often desire to access data associated with programming that will enable them to see a replay or review statistics.
The current inventors believe that the state of the art can be improved. Current systems do not enable a user of a mobile device (e.g., smartphone) that is serving as a second screen to retrieved segments of video of various lengths (e.g., 30 sec, 60 sec, 120 sec, 180 sec, 4 min, 5 min, 10 mins, etc.) from video content being displayed on a flat panel television set serving as a primary display without disturbing what is currently being displayed on the flat panel television set. Being able to accomplish this would be desirable when an observer of programming being displayed on the primary screen would like to replay past video from the ongoing programming without disturbing the flow of the programming when it is also being watched on the primary screen by other observers in a room. An example for when such a need would present itself is when a person is absent during a critical play in a live sporting event being displayed on a primary flat panel television set being watched by several observers (e.g., sports fans at a sports bar). The missing person may have missed the critical play when going to the restroom, or otherwise leaving the venue temporarily. Upon returning to resume watching the live sporting event on the primary screen, he is informed by another observer that he “missed a fantastic play.” Usually, the person would simply miss out on seeing what happened. But, if a solution envisioned by the present inventors were available, then the person would be able to wirelessly connect his smartphone to a module associated with the primary screen and retrieve a past video segment queued in a memory and representing the past programming recently shown on the primary screen and display it on the smartphone without disturbing the associated live programming as it is being displayed on the primary screen for other observers that continue to observe. There is certainly a need for such a system given the growing demand and appetite for technology that will enhance viewing of entertainment and sports content. There is also a need for new ways to generate advertising revenue while leveraging technology such as this, which will also be described herein.